Foo Fighters and Nirvana: Which is Dave Grohl's Biggest Achievement?

With their recent release, "Wasting Light," Foo Fighters now have a discography of eight albums and a best of to boot. What started as front man and guitarist Dave Grohl playing every instrument on their self-titled debut has now managed to span 16 years. At this point in time they've now outlasted Grohl's previous band, a little power trio you may have heard of by the name of Nirvana, by more than three-fold. Nirvana's major label release catalog is also about a third of the Foo's. This of course begs the question: which band would Dave Grohl put on his resume first?

Societal and Social Impact

After Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, Nirvana went from just being the voice of a generation to being the martyred voice of a generation. It was suddenly apparent that no matter how famous, talented and artistic you were, life was not clean and perfect. There are some that say that Nirvana's social impact may have lessened over time, much as Pearl Jam has. While they are still an immensely popular band with more than adequate sales numbers, Pearl Jam's every record doesn't push a generation forward anymore. Could the same have been said about Nirvana had Cobain been alive today?

So we're left to speculate on this, and one thing is for sure. No matter how long Foo Fighters stay a band, and no matter how many albums they release, they will never surpass Nirvana's social impact. It's actually quite hard to imagine any band having that ability, though I'm sure in the late 1960s no one thought that any band could surpass The Beatles in terms of social impact either. Nirvana is likely the only band to even come close to doing so.

Despite all this, clearly Foo Fighters are amongst today's biggest rock acts, and that has to count for something. In today's world an audience's attention span seems to grow shorter and shorter. For any band to maintain its status as long as Foo Fighters have, it takes something special, which clearly they have. Perhaps this actually speaks to a bigger achievement for Grohl. After all, with Foo Fighters Grohl is the songwriter and Nirvana's songwriter was Cobain.Therefore getting a second band to the level of success that Foo Fighters have obtained could speak more to Grohl's abilities in his own right.

However, an argument can and should be made that maybe Foo Fighters couldn't exist without Nirvana. After all, would anyone have bought the first album if they didn't know that the drummer from Nirvana was in this new band? The answer is probably not, of course. So in this regard, I think you still have to give the clear edge to Nirvana, but give some strong kudos to Grohl for just being able to repeat any amount of Nirvana's success. It's not like Foo Fighters are playing lounges in the Midwest, after all.

Do The Years and Mileage Add Up?

If it can't be said that Grohl's two bands are equals in terms of the impact they've had on society, is it better to compare them based on the length of their existence or on the amount of content they've contributed? At first glance, it hardly seems fair, given that Nirvana's lead singer and songwriter killed himself and thus abruptly cut that band's career short. However, you could also make the argument that no one can know just how long Nirvana would have gone on were Cobain still alive today. At this point Foo Fighters have been around for 16 years, which is considered a life time for a lot of bands that crack into the top of the charts.

By all accounts, Kurt was already starting to chafe under the weight of Nirvana, and was starting to express his desire to work outside the auspices of Nirvana. When it's said and done Nirvana more than likely a group that would have burned out after another album or two, if not sooner. Knowing this is all speculation makes it tougher to compare the longevity of the groups, but based solely on the amount of time each act could release albums into the sales charts and tour extensively on those albums, Foo Fighters have the edge.

If time-served doesn't register as a valid factor in this comparison, then maybe the size of each group's catalog isn't a fair comparison either. No matter how many factors you compare the tragic circumstances that surround the end of Nirvana's reign will always force us to look at things from a much more subjective point of view.

Just One Man's Opinion

Now that we've established that it really isn't possible or fair to compare these bands on any level that would be definitive, perhaps giving my own opinion directly is the only way to do this. For me, Nirvana is a band that ultimately has to be placed into the same rarefied air as The Beatles and as The Rolling Stones. Because it's so unfair to all other acts they get compared to, these three bands must be placed "off-limits" for discussions such as this.

For me, the Foo Fighters out-grew Nirvana. Nirvana's songs are fully representative of Kurt's own angst and emotional state. Nirvana breaths youthful anger into serious subjects and does so brilliantly. What Foo Fighters then do for me is to take all those subjects and for the most part dust off the pure ire in place of a more retrospective take on everything. Granted, in the first record or two, Grohl still had a biting edge lyrically, but as time has progressed he has been able to move his point of view in a much more philosophical and reflective direction.

I think had Nirvana had a 16 year career span, this may have occurred for Kurt's writings as well, but he was internally conflicted even that is not a foregone conclusion. Ultimately both Nirvana and Foo Fighters serve two different functions of the human experience. What makes the argument interesting is the fact Dave Grohl was an integral member of Nirvana and the founding influence of Foo Fighters, but outside of this maybe there really is no comparison to make which would be fair to either group.

The best way I can summarize my own feelings is in an analogy to one of my other passions: food. If Nirvana is a steak dinner at a four star chop house, Foo Fighters is a night at your favorite sushi place. Neither one is something to turn down. It just comes down to what you want to eat that night. Want something bloody and intense, you're going to want Nirvana's steak. If you're after something with some more refinement and layered nuances, you're going to dig Foo Fighter's sushi rolls.